Indian cinema is often referred to by different names, according
to the various regions and languages!
Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood, Malluwood, Sandalwood,
films in Marâthî, films in Gujarati, films in Punjabi, films in Oriya,
films in Assamais, films in English.

The productions in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu account for 60 % of the total!

"Extravagant India!" ! will give equal weighting to films from all regions.

Indian Cinema is scattered across languages, cultures, diverse traditions, lifestyles and cinematic styles. Any Indian Film Festival that aspires to present cinema from India needs to do so in its totality.

Despite the obvious fascination, the average French spectator hardly knows about India.
The Indian Cinema may seem to be composed of romantic epic dramas of 3.5 hours and colourful musical comedies, but a deeper look reveals that Indian Cinema is far more substantial and wide ranging than generally perceived.

Geography separates but culture unites and films bring together people across international boundaries.
For France, the great film connection was created in recent years by Extravagant India !.

Starting with a festival of Indian Short Films, "Extravagant India !" now seeks to include the whole cultural universe and it could not have chosen a better time than Namaste France to launch the third edition of International Indian Film Festival. A weeklong celebration of films from every corner of India where features will be suitably intermingled with shorts; with the features bringing in the colours and shorts, the shades and tints.
There couldn’t be a better appetiser than Indian shorts.

The cinematic language power of a talented director is universal. It is the directors that are the stars of a festival. Festivals are on the lookout for the next Tarantino, the next Terrence Malick, the next Takeshi Kitano…

In the last 15 years new generations of directors coming from Japan, Korea, China, Thailand have invaded the festivals and screens of all continents with their films. These uncompromising films, shot in their original local language, are the proof that no film crosses frontiers better than one that is rooted in its own culture.

We are at the dawn of a new age of films coming from India. In other words a key moment to launch our festival Extravagant India !

For some years films that are as diverse as they are remarkable, have been made without even having the private or public support needed to get them shown in Europe or abroad. This is about to change.

Like the Gods and Godesses of India, its Cinema too has many arms and faces.
It is these multiple facets which we want to put within reach of the professionals and public in France.

In this country as big as a continent, where several hundred languages are spoken, amongst which 22 are recognized as official languages, the film production counts more than 1200 full-length films a year and approximately 5000 shorts, figures to be compared with the 230 full-length films and approximately 500 shorts produced in France. Every day 23 million Indians go to the cinema seing films in different langages in more than
40 000 theatres, which means more than 5 billion viewers a year. There are also more than 500 television channels